The Somali government has ordered all media organisations to register with the Information Ministry in order to operate in the country, an official said on Friday.
”They must come to my office anytime to register in order to operate. That is what the law says,” Information Minister Madobe Nurrow Mohamed said in the capital, Mogadishu.
The order comes as international press watchdogs and foreign governments pile pressure on President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed to relax his clampdown on the press as his administration battles a deadly insurgency in Mogadishu.
Last month, Somali security forces besieged and opened fire at the capital’s Shabelle radio, destroying equipment and forcing it to close for 15 days after they accused one of Shabelle reporters of hurling a grenade on a police patrol.
Mohamed said the order also applied to local press watchdogs that operate in the country, apparently setting its sights on the outspoken Mogadishu-based National Union of Somali Journalists that has been liaising with global press watchdogs to record media rights violations.
”Local NGOs are not allowed to make contact with international NGOs if they are not registered with my ministry,” he added.
Rights groups have called for protection for journalists in Somalia, where at least seven journalists have been killed this year. A dozen journalists have also been arrested and five others have been ambushed and robbed.
Somalia is the second deadliest country worldwide after Iraq for journalists in 2007, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
The troubled Horn of Africa country has had no central authority since former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991 and has defied numerous attempts to restore stability. — Sapa-AFP